Cheers Deer!

A glorious spring day at last to bring cheer .... and deer.

Once I saw the sunshine today, I couldn't stay home! My son and I went for a drive and saw the most beautiful blossoming trees.

Nearby there were deer roaming through the same neighbourhood...one seemed to be fixated on a sign. ;)

My sore leg is improving slowly, although I am not able to walk for any length of time without pain. I have had my prescription for antibiotics renewed for a further week, and am being treated for Cellulitis. Back to the doctors next Tuesday for a follow-up. The sunshine is lifting my spirits :)

Tomorrow we are planning to attend an Art Gallery Studio Tour.

Varied Thrush

Instead of all the usual small birds, one large Varied Thrush was front and centre today. Other info can be found on this site.

I was able to take quite a few photos and a video through the front window which I have put together.


This time last year, my Cherry Tree had started to blossom, but it has been too cool so far.

March Scavenger Hunt Photos

Here are my photos for the March Scavenger Hunt from the list compiled by Kathy at Postcards from the P.P

a collection - a few of my hearts
a fancy gate - a property entrance taken near an estuary
a lamb - two for one! Taken on my drive through the countryside.
a lion - near the entrance to a motel
a rainbow - an older photo - I tried chasing rainbows this month, but no luck!
a ring - drawer pull on a music cabinet in the parlour
a shadow - of a Hellebore peeking through the front window
an empty chair - outside cafe seating taken from a walkway above
peeling paint - on a farm building door
something as old as you - my baby fine hair from a photo
something sentimental - a biscuit barrel which was a wedding present to my parents
something green - leg coverings in a store window!

A Slow Day

You can tell it's a slow day when I start numbering the daffodils in blooming order ;) I've given myself another day off from anything too strenuous before seeing the Dr. tomorrow about by knee.

The weather started out with promise, but turned cloudy and stayed that way until about 6 p.m. when the sun came by for a few golden moments before slipping back behind the clouds.

I had a walk around the garden, took a few photos, and that's about it for images today.

It's lovely to see that many around blogworld have been out in their gardens, enjoying gorgeous weather and have begun planting!

More spring in the garden

I stayed home again today, having a wander around the front and back and enjoying the spring day.  I spotted the first Forget-me-not of the year.

Most of my recent photos have been taken in the front area, but this afternoon the sun was shining on the deck, so I spent some time checking to see how spring was doing back there. The birds are certainly flitting through the trees and bushes, much like the sun going in and out of the clouds!  A lilac leafbud was wearing a fashionable feathery creation which looked quite enchanting as it waved in the breeze.

Being out there reminded me that soon I will be able to sit on the deck for long periods ~ because no way in heck am I going to do any sort of labour that might incur another housemaid's knee or housemaid's anything else for that matter~ LOL will become Lady of Leisure!

I must be feeling more like myself because I baked banana nut bread.

Birds, Bees and their knees

Now that I've been talking about the knees of birds, I found some interesting information and diagrams on this site.

Excerpt:
To keep their centre of balance when walking birds have evolved to have their equivalent of our thigh held permanently close to the body. The leg does not start to extend out from the body until after the knee joint which is never seen**. The backward bending leg joint that you see in bird's legs when they are walking is the equivalent of our ankle. A bird's foot is the equivalent of the tips of our toes. Thus the part of a bird's leg that looks like its shin is actually the equivalent of the arch of our foot.

**As we have seen, Seagull knees are visible.

As for the expression Bee's knees ~

Somewhere else I found this: Bees do have segmented legs, consisting of parts called a coax, a trochanter, a femur, a tibia and a tarsus, the joints between which must be considered to be 'knees'.

This is one of the dozy bees I've seen stumbling about after bumbling around the purple crocus pollen.

My first open daffodil was looking prettier than ever today:

I found my first Grape Hyacinth of the year:

and sweet Violets:

More buds opening on the Rhodo:

Shoots coming up from a Peony I planted last fall:

and two birds in a tree next door ~ I think, because of the pinkish hue on the bird at the right, these two might be a pair of House Finch.

All photos taken today were from my front and back garden, as I am not ready to wander far as yet.

After checking Nic's photos and video link, I see that a Heron sports visible knees too! If you haven't already, please check out his remarkable photos.

An apology to Seagulls everywhere!

Sending hearts and flowers to all Seagulls, and any other living thing with knees. :)

PS the background of the last photo is a the pinkish red hue of my poor below-knee area.

First Daffodil

When Yolanda of Bliss planted her magical carpet of Spring bulbs last autumn, I was inspired to plant some new daffodil bulbs. Tulips and many other tasty plants get chomped by deer. The daffodils in the front get most sun (when it shines, of course ;)), and the ones in the back have surfaced at last. Today I noticed that the one in the lead that I've been keeping an eye on has started to open. The photo has been dabbled with a bit of 'painting'.

Edited to add:

Here's a photo I took during sunset on March 19 of the golden-lit root part of a tree washed up on shore:

and on the same day, ducks taking off ~~

Making molehills out of mountains

...or something like that!

First the cabbage on the knee explanation: I was looking for a natural cooling poultice and found info on cabbage.

Although a cabbage poultice helped, this morning my knee was no better, so since I wasn't interested in taking the antibiotic with so many warnings prescribed yesterday, I opted to go and check myself into ER (Emergency) up the road a piece (not at my regional hospital which is renowned for a 6 hour wait). I had a 2 1/2 hour wait, during which time I read my e-reader. The doctor, who had a much more helpful demeanor than the one yesterday, told me his diagnosis which was infected Prepatellar Bursitis, (or Housemaid's Knee!) and that I would need antibiotics. I asked him about the drug previously prescribed and he mentioned that it was hard on the stomach, and prescribed another one. He thought once I started taking it, I should feel better by the weekend. I have a follow up appointment with my own doctor next Tuesday.

I found a photo of my younger-day's knee, but I didn't feel up to scanning it, so just took a photo which is of pretty bad quality. The photo was in colour, although faded, so this is the best I could do at this time.

On the way home, the mountain peaks looked snowy cool, while my leg was red hot! I am hoping the antibiotics will shrink my swollen mountain of a knee into smaller dimpled molehills. (That doesn't sound too pleasant either, actually ;)

PS I have crossed crawling in the crawl space off my list of things I will do. Gardeners beware, too, that constant kneeling can aggravate the bursa just below your kneecap! That goes for men and women!

Thanks for your concern :)

I do knee-d to say more!

My swollen knee is back. I met today with a locum (as my own doctor is out of town) who prescribed some antibiotic tablets for what she diagnosed as an infection. I never take anything without finding out about side effects, the symptoms of which I immediately acquire upon reading about them, before any medication is taken. The side effects from this particular medication can be nasty, so I'm holding off until I go to an appointment I have scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I will then consider whether or not I'm going to take them. In the meantime I have been using ice and at the moment have my knee wrapped in cabbage leaves...don't even ask.

Here is the little video from yesterday, and a collage of a Spotted Towhee that was checking out what might have been raked up yesterday... and a Varied Thrush.

Song of Spring

As the Hellebore peeked from the window box into the front room, I could see that the First Day of Spring looked promising!

I had noticed that the rose garden in town had been recently pruned, so off I went to prune mine. I also picked up evergreen branches, and raked up the front yard to celebrate the day.

A little Townsend's Warbler arrived once I'd finished and sat on a branch for the longest time as if it was taking note of the tidier lawn. Meanwhile a Robin serenaded from an overhead wire, which has been somewhat doctored for the occasion ;)

I was hoping for a colorful sunset as I set off for my walk to see how Harzel was doing.

Although it started to drizzle, the evening held some interesting silhouettes.

I was delighted to find Harzel sprouting leaves!

A cottontail bunny hopped out of the copse beside Harzel and down the trail he went. My photo didn't turn out well, though, as it made me jump!

Once I arrived back home, beautiful bird song was playing in my garden. I will try and download a short video later so it can be heard.

A great First Day of Spring!

Knee-d I say more?

From yesterday ~

My knee feels a bit better today and I have been treating it for Pre-Patellar Bursitis due to the trauma I inflicted on it by crawling around reconnecting the dryer hose. Anyway, I spent (most) of the day at home, although I did consider walking to see how Harzel was doing. I hope I haven't missed his leaflet splurt! Perhaps tomorrow.

Photos of the day and the mail:

Chasing rainbows...but finding foamy suds

A rainbow type day, with a mix of sun and showers ~ this is how the day started ~

and this is how it ended with a sunset (followed by a look at the Supermoon, through my binoculars and telescope which I took out on the front lawn)

but in between, I took loads of photos that I am working on now. Have you ever seen a bay filled with 'suds'? Well you will.... to be continued

Continuing on...

Although I began writing myself a response to the mail received yesterday, I stopped half way through as the day invited me outside...

Something picturesque in the rain:

...and then I came across huge loads of sudsy foamy herring milt! It looked like meringue whipped up and filled the bay. Many sea birds (and sea lions) were in attendance.

It was a day filled with wondrous sights!

BTW Here's my return mail ~